“No one wanted anything to do with a cynical person like me. I told my youth minister that I was, I pretty much told him that I wanted to kill myself.”—Reed Robertson, a teenage star of Duck Dynasty, talking about how fame had impacted him unintentionally.

Robertson, son of Jase Robertson, says on a video for the Christian group IAmSecond, that his newfound fame impacted him and made him a different, less likeable person. Some of his longtime friends began to avoid him. He hit rock bottom, going so far as to write a suicide note.

After some heart-to-hearts with his parents and pastor, he turned his life around.

“I just thought about, like, ‘I’m about to leave all these people that I could have a really huge impact with,” he says. “I was finally free of doubts, of having an attitude of being cynical, and I remember being so relieved. And Jesus brings that relief. I think who taught me that was the men in my life and my family.” (IAmSecond.com)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.